About Custom Group Elements

A custom group element is a logical expression of qualifications. Each custom group element is made up of:

• A header, which contains the name of the custom group element and is displayed as a row in report results. The header is an arbitrary name that you define when you create the element. This name can be displayed on the report, so you should choose a meaningful name for the grouping of elements that you are defining. The Custom Group Editor provides you with different options for displaying the headers. For details, see Changing the Position of Element Headers.
• One or more conditions (also called filtering qualifications) that must be met to include data in the custom group element, such as "Quarter=Q1." You can define any qualification, logical expression, or banding of the qualification, or you can use previously created filters to build the custom group element.

You can combine different types of filtering qualifications in the same custom group element. For example, you can combine "Region = Northeast" (an attribute qualification) with "Revenue > $1 million" (a metric qualification). Each set of conditions resolves into a list of attribute elements after the report is run.

You can add that qualification to the report filter so that it determines the values of the custom group elements. You can then specify how the custom group interacts with the report filter, as described in Determining Custom Group Interaction with the Report Filter.

Custom group elements can include a logical expression containing any of the following qualification types ("Developer" and "Web" indicate which product the qualification can be created in):

• Attribute qualification (Developer, Web): Restricts data based on the value of an attribute form; lets you view data only for attribute elements in a list; or compares two attributes to filter data.
• Set qualification (Developer, Web): Restricts data based on the value, rank or percentage of a metric, or by comparing the values of two metrics.
• Custom group banding qualification (Developer): Slices data into multiple ranges, or bands, based on metric values.

  You cannot combine banding qualifications with other types of qualifications.

• Shortcut-to-a-report qualification (Developer, Web): Restricts data using the results of an existing report. Also known as report qualifications or reports as filters.
• Shortcut-to-a-filter qualification (Developer, Web): Restricts data using an existing filter. Also known as filter qualifications or embedded filters.
• Shortcut-to-a-prompt qualification (Web): Restricts data using the answers to an existing prompt.

  MicroStrategy Developer allows prompts in most qualification types. For details, see Prompted Custom Groups.